One of the great things about building a platform is the wonderful people you get to meet. One such person is Charles E. Yallowitz, author of the epic fantasy series Legends of Windemere. The latest book is Sleeper of the Wildwood Fugue. He also just released a 27-page short story for 99 cents called Ichabod Brooks & the City of Beasts, if you want to get a a quick, cheap taste of him… whatever.

He has shared with us a great post on fantasy languages, with 10 tips on things to do and don’t do when using one. Take it, Charles!

Despicable Me Minion Translator (Yahoo Image Search)

10 Do’s and No-no’s of Fantasy Languages

It isn’t easy writing fiction and delving into the concept of languages. Many of us grew up with the humor of ‘Pig Latin’, which was so ‘cool’ as a child. Now it’s barely uttered and probably on its way to a dead language like Sanskrit and Neanderthal. Though I hear that last one is making a comeback in bars during certain days of the week. Anyway, you can always attempt to make your own language and attempt to be recognized alongside Tolkien and Roddenberry. Here’s some advice from someone who hasn’t tried this:

1. DO put some form of translation in your story

Whether a guide or a bilingual character, you need people to understand your language to make it work beyond a minor plot event. Sure, the ‘language barrier’ obstacle can be fun to play out, but if you’re going for greatness then you need more.

2. DO NOT jam tons of Y, Q, K, and Z letters into a language

That’s been done and many people find it ridiculous. Once you go for 3 Y’s in a row, you’re probably on your way to an intervention.

3. DO take punctuation into account

That can make the difference in your language being understood. Commas, question marks, capitalization, and apostrophes can help clear up the use of a word by putting it in context. It can also help distinguish fantasy words from fantasy names.

4. DO NOT slip random Earth words into your story

Especially if said story occurs on a foreign planet or different dimension. Of course, this doesn’t count for the language you’re publishing in. For example, it would make no sense for an elf of Windemere to speak a few words in Russian among their true language. There is no Russia, so such words wouldn’t exist. An added problem is that doing this can throw off whatever language pattern and system you were creating.

5. DO study other languages to some extent

Learn about pluralization and gender-specific words within other language systems. If you want a solitary inspiration then pick one language and study it to copy the nuances. Only go for the nuances and not the whole language unless that’s your plan.

6. DO NOT refuse to learn your own fictional language

Even if your fans deciphered your language and improved it, you might want to learn a few phrases. You are the progenitor of this new tongue and people will be disappointed if you can’t even say hello or ask to use the bathroom in it.

7. DO remember that you still have to use an Earth keyboard

You can’t go entirely off a fictional alphabet. Somebody is going to have to type your story into a computer or note things in a review. Unless you know how to program language software, you’re going to need to work off the ABC’s.

8. DO NOT have every character understand every language in the world

Just as in reality, not everyone is fluent in every language. Have somebody be confused on what’s being said so that the reader doesn’t feel like they’re nothing more than an outsider sitting in the corner of a big party.

9. DO take some time to create names that incorporate your new language

Even if they’re nothing more than titles, it brings more cultural credence to the overall language.

10. DO NOT use your fictional language as an excuse to mess up the spelling of real words

If a character has a typo in his dialogue, it better be clear that he or she was trying to speak another language. If that isn’t clear then you need to fess up to the oops.

Who is Charles, you say?

Charles E. Yallowitz was born, raised, and educated in New York. Then he spent a few years in Florida, realized his fear of alligators, and moved back to the Empire State.

When he isn’t working hard on his epic fantasy stories, Charles can be found cooking or going on whatever adventure his son has planned for the day.

‘Legends of Windemere’ is his first series, but it certainly won’t be his last.

63 Comments

Hah – great post! I love languages (real ones!) but fantasy languages with apostrophes after every other consonant drive me nuts. I feel like I’ve developed a stutter when I’m reading.

One set of my characters speak what amounts to old Irish (it’s an alternate history/mythology) and the others speak a different language. I only sprinkle the actual words in here and there, and tend to use the same ones frequently (Sanderson method?) Old Irish spellings and pronunciation are massive tongue-twisters, and tough on readers, so definitely had to be very sparing with them!

The other thing I had to watch out for in the dialogue was that in the Irish, there is no word for ‘yes’, so responding to a question had to reflect that – and it was easy to forget when hammering out the drafts in English 🙂 The bonus was that the non-Irish speaking characters get to you use their word for ‘yes’ instead.

Nothing, nothing, NOTHING bugs me more than being absorbed in a story (SF/F) and come across an obviously earthbound phrase/word that is soooooo out of context.
I may or may not have thrown books at my stuffed animal collection when confronted with this heinous crime against, not only humanity but all galactic races!

Excellent post, Nicholas. I’ve played with fantasy languages and its great fun designing not only words but how sentences are structured. I’ve found that keeping it short is a good idea, or readers will just skim and look for the translation. Brandon Sanderson did a nice job in Elantris of having a couple basic words (greetings) that everyone in the book used. He never translated them, but they were clear from the context and gave the entire book an otherworldly feel.

You hit on a great point about not using Earth “language” words in a novel that doesn’t take place on Earth. Another thing to be aware of (and impossible to completely avoid) is using Earth words or phrases with an obvious Earthly origin. For example, a character might “cover his bases.” He could “go to bat” for someone, or be “out of his league.” Is there baseball on this world? “Shift into high gear” is another one. It’s crazy-making, I know, but these pop me out of a fantasy read on occasion.

Very true. I always have fun with this in Pearseus, trying to guess what an English expressions might sound like to non-humans. I have this scene where a First hears the English expression “the best laid plans of mice and men” and whispers to his wife, “just how smart were rats on Earth, anyway?” 😀

Real world phrases do seem to slip in from time to time. Though I always considered making a sport in my world to cover the ‘bases’ and ‘league’ phrases. Just haven’t found a place to put it in since it’s highly extraneous.

Something that I see a lot of sci-fi do is have fictional curse words along with the greetings. It happens a lot on shows, which is a curious way to elude censors.

I’ve used a few words in Pearseus. The thinking behind it was that the First were really humans from 100,000 years ago, therefore the earliest languages would contain these sounds. Then, it was just a question of finding a way to translate my phrases to them, which was possible thanks to the Internet… 🙂

This post was most entertaining, mainly because the problem of creating a fantasy language had never occurred to me. The restrictions of a QWERTY keyboard tend to suggest it is a lot more difficult than it might at first appear.
I always found it strange that Star Trek fans actually learned to speak ‘Klingon’ (note that Klingon is acceptable to auto-correct- hilarious!) but I suppose that is the ultimate accolade to the writer of that series.
I like the device used in ‘Dune’, when the helpers of the Guild navigators use an ancient-looking microphone style contraption that translates what they say as they talk.
Thanks Nicholas, and ‘good one’ Charles.
Best wishes, Pete.

It’s definitely harder to make a fictional language on a computer than by hand like the old days. Auto-correct has some interesting additions like Schwarzenegger. Guess that’s a goal for anybody with a hard to spell last name and a desire to be famous. I’m also thinking of the Babel Fish from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy too. 🙂

This was a great read! Thank you! I’ve been considering how to handle fictional languages of a fantasy world I’m writing. So far I’ve been able to “cheat” a little because it’s technically a parallel world to ours, so it would make sense to have some of the same language families or etymologies as we do (but no; no one speaks Russian).

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